Dir. Menhaj Huda, 2006, UK, 89 mins
Cast: Aml Ameen, Red Madrell, Noel Clarke, Jamie Winstone, Adam Deacon, Femi Oyeniran
Review by Kevin Holmes
Yo Bluh, why you buggin? This is wack, nah. Chill yeah. Peace.
Yes. Quite. “What the hell does that mean?” you may ask. Well it’s the lingo of the kids, man. Yep they’re alright, well, kind of. Kidulthood is the first feature from a very promising British pair, director Menhaj Huda and screenwriter Noel Clarke (who also stars as Sam). And I can tell you it’s the shiz, swear down; courting controversy like it was a potential spouse, the film takes us through a day in the life of a group of school friends in 21st Century West London. It opens with an engaging tour of a school playground, where we are introduced to our protagonists in their natural environment, smoking blunts, playing the girls/guys and generally larking about. Without wanting to give the plot away what happens next acts as a dramatic catalyst that gives the kids the day off, which sets in motion the day’s events, which inevitably, spiral out of control.
The great British ‘yoof’ film is almost a sub-genre in itself and this can sit happily alongside the best. It makes great use of British music – The Streets, Audio Bullys, Dizzee Rascal, Roots Manuva, Lady Sovereign – and urban locations around West London and the West End, all adding to the films authenticity. The films strengths - like the youth films that have come before - lie in this authenticity. The script-writer Noel Clarke has said he drew on his own experiences as a kid and researched various newspaper stories to come up with the plot and characters (a lot of the actors said they based their character on kids they knew at school and this is something that comes across in the film, the characters being highly plausible). From this he has given us a condensed snapshot of what is happening around Britain today. Being set over one day, a suspension of our disbelief is required to believe all the events happened in just 24 hours, but it’s a microcosmic perspective of what’s happening in the macrocosm. And, of course, he’s right, we’ve all been stuck on the bus with a load of school kids, talking some obscure language, wearing hoodies and displaying threatening behaviour. They get treated like faceless monsters, simulacra, rather than people who think, feel, love; but Kidulthood, while showing us their somewhat anti-social behaviour takes us behind the hoods, the masks, the catchphrases (am I bovvered though?) and the headlines.
One of the characteristics that define these kids as people and as part of a specific sub-culture is their speech - while infectious - it’s also put to great effect in immersing the viewer into their world. Its hilarious watching them mouth off to shopkeepers or discussing the aesthetic merits of certain parts of the human anatomy. The speech has its own logic, wit and rhythmic pattern, which flows from their lips like furious poetry. It’s also a uniquely British dialect arising from the cultural melting pot that is London, incorporating slang from cultures as diverse as Jamaican, Indian and Cockney.
The characters, while somewhat clichéd in conception, are so humorous and brought to life with such charm and clarity by the actors, that you can’t help rooting for them. For all the drug taking and underage sex that goes on, there are also moments of heartfelt friendship interspersed with high drama, all undercut with intelligence and humour. At the end of the film, after the tragedy has unfolded and before the end credits, we are given a little description of what happens to these characters after the credits have rolled. We know this is fiction, but it’s obvious that the director and writer want us to realise that it could just as well be real, that this is going on, right now, the minute you step foot outside the comforting womb of the cinema, it’s there, in your face. It’s an emotional journey and one that, while some may find shocking and perhaps rather too dramatic to be believable, I personally found humane, bold, funny and above all, real. Vincit qui se vincit. Standard bro.
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